World leaders aim to tackle Syria issue

Officials seek to get Russia's Putin on board with decree

New York Times

New York Times

Published 11:13 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013

(L-R) Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama join their G8 colleagues for the second Plenary Session of the G8 summit at the Lough Erne resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on June 18, 2013. Russia and the US agreed at the G8 summit to push for Syria peace talks, but Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama made clear their deep differences over the conflict. AFP PHOTO/POOL/STEFAN ROUSSEAUSTEFAN ROUSSEAU/AFP/Getty Images

Senior officials at a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries here struggled Tuesday to draft a statement on the war in Syria acceptable to both Russia — the main international backer of President Bashar Assad — and to countries that want to see a rapid transition of power in Damascus.

Tensions over how to deal with the widening conflict and growing humanitarian crisis in Syria have dominated the two-day meeting in Northern Ireland that ends Tuesday.

The summit meeting's host, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, had indicated he was hoping the gathering would yield a joint declaration as the basis for talks expected to take place in Geneva under the auspices of the United States and Russia.

"We remain committed to achieving a political solution to the crisis based on a vision for a united, inclusive and democratic Syria," a G-8 statement said.

British officials hope that Assad could be persuaded to send a representative to those discussions, paving the way for him to relinquish power.

But Western hopes that the peace conference in Geneva could take place in July were also receding because this might prove "too early" for President Vladimir Putin of Russia, said a Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Putin has supported Assad both diplomatically and with weapons. He has warned against U.S. plans to begin sending some arms to rebels there and he has said he does not believe the rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian leader in a bloody civil war that has claimed an estimated 93,000 lives have the capacity to form an alternative government.

As the line-by-line discussion of the summit declaration continued Tuesday, there was a growing likelihood that Russia would sign up to a communique with the other seven nations but only in return for softer language about a political transition.